Almost 14 million viewers watched the Broncos triumph over the Raiders this week. As the Broncos trounced the Raiders, so ESPN beat all networks, broadcast and cable, in the key demographics preferred by advertisers. The “Monday Night Football” telecast – a Denver Broncos’ 37-21 victory over the Oakland Raiders on September 23 – ranked as the top telecast of the night across cable and broadcast in households, all the key male demos and adults 18-34 and 18-49.

In Denver, the game delivered a 15.7 rating on ESPN and a 28.7 on KTVD, for a combined 44.4 rating in the market. In San Francisco, the game managed only a 14.6 combined rating on ESPN and KBCW (the CW affiliate).

The Raiders-Broncos telecast got an 8.9 rating, according to Nielsen, representing an average of 10.3 million households and 13.9 million viewers. Coverage peaked from 9:45-10 p.m. with a 10.7 US rating.

“Duck Dynasty,” that innocuous little reality TV show about bearded folk in camo who make duck calls in West Monroe, La., just broke all cable TV ratings records. Those Robertsons know how to summon a crowd.

The fourth season premiere Wednesday on A&E drew 11.8 million viewers, making it the most-watched nonfiction series telecast in cable history. It put CBS’ “Under the Dome” to shame.

The one-hour season premiere introduced previously unseen Robertson family member Alan Robertson and featured Duck Commander founder Phil Robertson renewing his vows with his wife, “Miss Kay.”

For comparison, when “Duck Dynasty” premiered in March 2012, it drew 1.8 million. That means it’s added 10 million viewers in less than 18 months.

A&E released this statement from General Manager and Executive Vice President David McKillop: “We would like to thank the Robertsons for their incredible partnership. We are all Happy, Happy, Happy.”

With one night left in the February 2013 sweeps, when local ratings are measured to set future advertising rates, Denver is a reshaped TV market compared to what it’s been historically. For decades, the town was dominated by a single monolithic TV entity, KUSA. Now, at 10 p.m. the difference between the first- and third-ranked station is barely more than a rating point.

Of course NBC nationally is hitting new lows (hello “Do No Harm,” “Smash,” “Deception,” “1600 Penn.”), while CBS won February for the first time since 1998 (thanks to “The Big Bang Theory,” “NCIS,” the Super Bowl and the Grammys). NBC ranked last behind CBS, ABC and Univision.

Arguably CBS4 should be doing better at 10 p.m., although it does claim sign-on to sign-off dominance. And while it’s apples-and-oranges, Fox31 scores a very solid 2.5 rating, 7 share for its 9 p.m. newscast. Read more…

Preliminary ratings for Sunday’s Oscar telecast indicate the spectacle, hosted by Seth MacFarlane, will outrank 2012’s show and do better in the younger demographics sought by advertisers.

Overnight ratings show a 26.6 rating overall and a 41 share. That’s a 4 percent increase from the 25.5 rating and 38 share in 2012. The quality of this year’s crop of films in addition to the host’s popularity among the youthful audience (compared to Billy Crystal as host in 2012) no doubt played key roles in boosting the numbers.

On social media, the biggest star of the night was Adele, who was most mentioned (950,586 Tweets, etc.), according to Trendrr.

Final numbers: 40.3 million viewers on average up 11percent in the younger (18-49) demo.

Blackout or no, 108.41 million viewers tuned in to Sunday’s CBS’ Super Bowl coverage, making it the third-most-watched program in television history (after Super Bowl XLVI with 111.3 million and Super Bowl XLV with 111.0 million). It fell 3 million viewers shy of last year’s record ratings.

The 2013 game was the second-highest-rated Super Bowl in 27 years (since 1/26/86 when the game scored a 48.3 rating and 70 share for Chicago v. New England).

While the average was 108.41 million, the audience peaked at 113.92 million viewers –at the end. CBS didn’t count the audience during the blackout as part of its coverage.

Now that the playing field is even, the Kimmel-Leno-Letterman late night battle launched Tuesday was a win for Jimmy Kimmel nationally. Kimmel’s debut on ABC beat David Letterman on CBS and Jay Leno on NBC in national ratings. (Kimmel scored a 2.8 rating and 8 share in households, besting Letterman’s 2.7 rating, 7 share and Leno’s 2.4 rating, 6 share).

Brooke Wagner, lead morning anchor, “Wednesday’s Child” champion and consumer (bargain hunting) reporter at KCNC-Channel 4 for 10 years, had her last day at the end of the 2012 holiday week. Her contract was not renewed. General Manager Walt DeHaven did not elaborate.

Chalk it up to Channel 4’s dismal ratings in the morning. CBS4 was fifth out of five full-hour newscasts, 6-7 a.m., for the November sweeps. Something had to give. Word is Wagner, a solid presence on the overall sleepy morning show, has possibilities elsewhere. The station is expected to take its time finding a replacement.

News Director Tim Wieland aims to “inject the morning news with new energy,” with plans on the production side along with staff changes, not of which is finalized yet.

After 16 years at the top, the former kingpin of morning television, NBC’s “Today” has been on a highly publicized ratings decline and management reshuffle, as ABC’s “Good Morning America” has taken the lead. Denver is the rare market where “Today” clings to a tiny advantage.

Moving to shore up “Today,” the network this week put Alexandra Wallace in charge. Wallace is a senior VP at NBC, a TV news veteran and the first woman to oversee the show (whose audience is primarily women). Wallace bumped executive producer Jim Bell to a post overseeing production of the Olympics and gave the “Today” exec producer title to Don Nash, a longtime “Today” producer. It was Bell’s decision to boot Ann Curry, a move that only contributed to the implosion of the wake-up show.

[media-credit name=”ABC News” align=”alignright” width=”270″] Stills from the final presidential debate on Monday.

As predicted, baseball and football took a bite out of the ratings for the third and final presidential debate Monday. Still, 59.2 million viewers tuned in — more than for the third presidential debate in 2008, fewer than for any of this season’s debates.

With Fox broadcast networks otherwise engaged, Fox News Channel scored its biggest victory yet, 11.5 million viewers, beating both baseball and football, not to mention CNN and MSNBC (both of which it also beat). That 11.5 milllion was the best in Fox News Channel’s 16-year history.

Best news of the day: Stay tuned for a third season of “Homeland.” Showtime announced Monday it has ordered a third season of its multiple Emmy-winning drama series about terrorism.

Beyond winning awards– including Outstanding Drama Series, Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series, and Outstanding Lead Actress and Actor for Claire Danes and Damian Lewis– the series has delivered significant winning ratings, drawing 5.2 million viewers during its first week (including live, repeats, on DVRs and on demand).

The Sept. 30 season 2 premiere was up 60 percent from its season 1 premiere, thanks to critical praise and Emmy wins, delivering 2.07 million viewers for the night.

Sunday’s episode was the series’ highest rated ever, with 1.75 million viewers.

Joanne Ostrow has been watching TV since before "reality" required quotation marks. "Hill Street Blues" was life-changing. If Dickens, Twain or Agatha Christie were alive today, they'd be writing for television. And proud of it.